"Still a solid game"

I'm not too big of a fan of the Virtua Fighter series. I recently played the original for the first time in some collection. And just a few weeks ago I played Virtua Fighter 5 on the PS3. Now I am jumping back and playing this one. How is it? Does it hold up? Read on!

There is no story for this game and it seems the series itself has no story. Oh well, at least the characters look cool.

The graphics in this game are actually pretty good. Character models are a little blocky but are still nicely detailed. It's kind of cool that if you knock someone down, we'll say Pai, her hair clip falls out and her hair falls down. Or if you're fighting Kage and knock him down then his mask falls off and you see his face. Nice little touches. The arenas are kind of boring for the most part. The one with the lightning and thunder was really nicely done though.

Sound in the game is alright. Thunks and what not when you're hitting each other. The music was pretty good though. Not the best I've heard in a fighting game but it gets the job done. As I mentioned before though the sound of thunder in the one stage was top notch.

Control at first feels stiff but once you learn some moves it really speeds up and feels much smoother. With only a block, punch and kick button there isn't a whole lot to learn either.

Virtua Fighter 2 is your typical fighter when it comes to modes. Arcade, vs. and a team battle. It offers some decent options like how much health, damage, time and rounds.

The game has about 10 characters to pick from. They all have their own moves and styles so not one character play like another. That's something I really like about this game.

The first thing you'll notice though is that you can not button mash your way to a win unless you're on the easiest setting. The game has some pretty good AI and it has some stuff that really hasn't changed even in Virtua Fighter 5.

You will need to pick a character you like and learn his moves. Go on-line or whatever it takes but learn the moves. if you don't this game will feel really slow until you see the enemy bust out some absurd move that's so fast compared to what you are doing that it's just mind blowing. Once you take the time to learn a character you're be doing reversals, throws and everything.

The game is a bit short since it really doesn't have anything but an arcade mode with no story. VS is fun though when you have friends over but again, you will need to learn a character as will your friends so it isn't something that can easily be picked up and played.

Virtua Fighter 2 really feels like it was a head of its time. It's one of the few fighters from the Saturn age that offer reversals, throws and a very stiff learning curve that just didn't allow for button mashing. If you play the game and don't like it much, you most likely won't give it the time that you need to really get the enjoyment out of it.